[blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

[Barbara Hammel]

Hey Holly
We adopted our twins almost four years ago from Kunming, Yunnan province 
China at the age of 2 years and fifty weeks.
Barbara

If wisdom's ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care:  of whom 
you speak, to whom you speak, and how and when and where.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "holly miller" <hollym12 at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:36 PM
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Training Wheels or Not?

> Hank is 8 and isn't interested in riding a bike so I haven't experienced 
> it
> first hand.
> I did want to wave to you though because Hank is also adopted from China.
> He joined our family a month before his 6th birthday, from Suzhou.
>
> My gut feeling is, go by if she want the training wheels off or not.
> If having them on doesn't bother her, if they allow her to bike safely &
> confidently who cares how old she is?  Besides grandma of course (smile)
>
> If she is feeling self conscious about them herself,  a friend swears by
> taking the pedals off at the same time you take the training wheels off.
> Lower the seat so her feet will just sit flat on the ground.  Let her 
> scoot
> around with foot power, picking up her feet to glide and learn balance.
> If she starts to wobble, it's easy to set a foot down to stabilize.  The
> theory is kids feel more secure when they are concentrating on balance and
> not thinking about pedaling.  Less epic wipe outs with this method too. 
> Once
> they are confidently gliding around, reinstall the pedals
>
> Holly
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